New Gov. Cuomo Initiative Will Fund College Classes in Prisons

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo speaks at Wilborn Temple in Albany on Sunday.

AP

New York state will launch a college-education program for prisoners at 10 facilities, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Sunday, in an effort designed to reduce recidivism rates and the overall size of the prison population.

The program will offer both associate’s and bachelor’s degrees by bringing college professors to the prisons—one in each region of the state—from educational associations that provide accredited programs.

Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, announced the effort at an address in Albany during the New York state Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Legislative Caucus Weekend.

A Cuomo administration official said the program would be funded through the state budget, but couldn’t provide an exact figure for the total cost.

The administration estimates that while the state spends $60,000 for each incarcerated individual—”more money than it takes to send a person to Harvard University for a year,” the governor said—it would cost approximately $5,000 to pay for one year of college education for that inmate. And inmates who earn college degrees are far less likely to return to prison.

New York state’s recidivism rate stands at 40%, according to state data. An existing program called the Bard Prison Initiative—which provides college education and a Bard College degree to incarcerated individuals at six prisons in New York state—has a recidivism rate of 4% for the people who have participated in the program since 1999.

“You have to ask yourself, are we really correcting anything?,” Mr. Cuomo said, referring to the title of the Department of Corrections. “And what are we accomplishing for all that money?

“We’re imprisoning, we’re isolating. But we’re not rehabilitating the way we should,” he said.

The Cuomo administration estimates that degrees for inmates would take between 2 ½ and three years, and plans to issue a request for proposals for the program in March.

“A higher level of education will support these men and women in moving forward with their lives, as opposed to returning to criminal activity and prison,” said Assemblyman Karim Camara, a Brooklyn Democrat who is chairman of the New York state Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Legislative Caucus.

Glenn Martin, who earned a college degree while in prison in New York state in 2000 and is now the president of JustLeadershipUSA, a nonprofit devoted to cutting the U.S. prison population by half by 2030, said it is important that the state selects college programs that are not only academically rigorous but have credits that are transferable and re-entry-related programs to help prisoners “make the transition from college on the inside to college on the outside.”

For Mr. Cuomo, the effort comes on top of another criminal justice legislative priority largely targeting minority populations: raising the minimum age at which teenagers can be tried and charged as adults. New York state currently allows 16- and 17-year-olds to be sent to adult prisons. Mr. Cuomo’s reference on Sunday to that effort, which he had announced in his state of the state address, earned him thunderous applause from minority legislators.